HEALING THE PARALYTIC. OIL ON WOOD. CASTILLIAN SCHOOL, SPAIN, 16TH CENTURY.

Healing of the Paralytic. Oil on panel. Castilian School, 16th century. Partially rebuilt. This religious scene, set in a relatively elegant interior, is carved from two-tone stone and depicts a group of male figures interacting with one another. Ten stand with golden halos and are engraved with architectural motifs (one carries a palm, another a staff); one rests a bare foot on a footstool, which also appears to support the head or upper part of another reclining figure, his gaze raised and one foot bandaged. It is important to note the restorations the panel has undergone, in which several elements have been redrawn, continuing the original design where possible. Iconographically, it is a somewhat unclear subject: given the presence of a crutch in the hand, the bandaged foot of the reclining figure is logical and, if Christ is the central figure, we could be looking at a healing (perhaps that of the paralytic in Capernaum that took place in a house, or the healings in the temple of God mentioned by Matthew[21:14-15]…), although the presence of the palm suggests a burial (according to some apocryphal gospels, church fathers… an angel appeared to Mary three days before dying/ascending to give her a palm from Paradise and that she was to give to the Apostles to take before her body) or a saint who has been martyred. Stylistically, the panel clearly displays Flemish influences (faces, fabrics, etc.), alongside details more characteristic of Spanish Gothic painting (golden halos, architecture, etc.), placing the work within the Hispano-Flemish school. The oculus with its two-tone red and white voussoirs was common in Spanish architecture, and this element in the panel can be compared to that of the Church of Santa María la Mayor de Abiesgo in Huesca (without colors), the Mudéjar Church of the Virgen de Tobed in Zaragoza (with oculi featuring latticework in these colors), or the Church of San Pedro in Palencia (with an oculus bearing lines similar to its interior). The Virgin of the Catholic Monarchs, housed in the Prado Museum, dated between 1491 and 1493 and attributed to a Castilian Hispano-Flemish painter, features pink and green tiles (though not arranged as in this work). The National Art Museum of Catalonia holds a Virgin of the Milk with a donor, linked to León and dated to the second half of the 15th century, in which Jesus has a halo similar to those in this panel. Some see a strong influence of Pedro Berruguete (Paredes de Nava, Palencia c. 1450 - Madrid? 1503) in this panel; compare it with the Nativity of the Virgin from the altarpiece of the church of San Martín de Becerril de Campos (circa 1495, Diocesan Museum of Palencia), the Lamentation over the Dead Christ (Palencia Cathedral, circa 1490), etc.

· Size: 99x4x128 cms